Marjorie's Vacation eBook

Marjorie’s head began to sway back and forth,
and Molly, thoroughly frightened, seized her by the
shoulder and shook her vigorously.

“Marjorie Maynard!” she exclaimed.
“If you faint and tumble out of this bucket,
I’ll never speak to you again as long as I live!”

Her excited tones roused Marjorie from the faintness
that was beginning to steal over her.

“I don’t want to fall into the water,”
she said, shuddering.

“Well, then, brace up and behave yourself!
Stand up straight in your bucket and hang on to the
chains. Don’t look down; that was what
made you feel faint. We’re here and we must
make the best of it. We can’t get out until
somebody comes, so let’s be plucky and do the
best we can.”

“Pooh! Molly Moss! I guess I can be
as brave as you can! I’m not going to faint,
or tumble into the water, or do anything silly!
Now that I don’t have to stand on tiptoe, I could
stand here all day,—­and Carter’s
bound to come for water for the cows.”

Then what did those two ridiculous girls do but bravely
try to outdo each other in their exhibition of pluck!

Neither complained again of weariness or cramped muscles,
and finally Marjorie proposed that they tell each
other stories to make the time pass, pleasantly.
The stories were not very interesting affairs, for
both speaker and listener were really suffering from
pain and chill.

At last Molly said: “Suppose we scream
some more. If Carter should be passing by, you
know, he might hear us.”

Marjorie was quite willing to adopt this plan, and
after that they screamed at intervals on the chance
of being heard.

Two mortal hours the girls hung in the well before
help came, and then Carter, passing near the well,
heard what seemed to him like a faint and muffled
cry.

Scarcely thinking it could be the children, he paused
and listened.

Again he heard a vague sound, which seemed as if it
might be his own name called in despairing tones.

Guided more by instinct than reason, he went and looked
over the well-curb, and was greeted with two jubilant
voices, which called up to him:

CHAPTER XX

“Not a bit,” chirped Midget, who was determined
to be plucky to the last; “we just came down
here to get cooled off, and somehow we can’t
get up.”

“Well, if ye aren’t a team of Terrors!”
exclaimed the exasperated Carter. “I’ve
a good mind to let ye stay down there and get
cooled off!”

Carter was really frightened, but Marjorie’s
voice was so reassuring that his mood turned to anger
at the children’s foolishness. As he looked
into the situation, however, and saw the girls clasping
each other as they hung half-way down the well, his
alarm returned.